Member-only story
Animals Want to Live. Will They Save Us?
We are part of the world, but we don’t take it seriously
Yesterday, I wrote about the film The Dark Crystal. I talked about how the Original Beings, severe but benign, can’t process the two halves of their own nature so they polarize and split in a hideous way and then deflect from their personal problem by harassing an adorable group of forest muppets.
This process happens in the real world in various ways. Often: A large religion can’t resolve its own schisms, and at least one of its breakoff movements oppresses a smaller religion. Also common: A large nation can’t agree on its borders or its national myth, and at least one powerful faction goes off and invades some outlying region. In those situations, the small, hapless victim isn’t the cause of the larger entity’s problems.
Today I’m thinking about how all of humanity could be considered one enormous group that polarizes and is unable to resolve its own splits. On whom do we put our confusion and frustration? Non-human life. Animals and plants, ecosystems and habitats…
